Meatout 2010: “Eat for Life – Live Vegan!”

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March 20 is Meatout, an international grassroots diet education campaign sponsored by the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) and co-sponsored by In Defense of Animals (IDA), that brings together a diverse crowd from animal lovers and consumer protection advocates to health care professionals and public officials.

This year’s theme is “Eat for Life – Live Vegan!”

While the decision to eat meat, or consume other animal products, is an individual choice, it’s one that’s quickly growing into a collective action, the repercussions of which can be seen on a global level.

As environmental science delves deeper into the effects of meat production, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the consequences of this unsustainable practice that causes problems including a loss of biodiversity, global warming, deforestation, air and water pollution, diseases and violence.

It’s also difficult to ignore the intense suffering of innocent animals who are treated as mere commodities with dollar signs attached, but there seems to be a disconnect between neatly wrapped packages on store shelves and their origins.

Each year, ten billion cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, and other innocent, sentient animals are caged, crowded, deprived, drugged, mutilated, and manhandled in US factory farms. They are then hauled to the slaughterhouse and slaughtered under atrocious conditions. Nine percent (over 850 million) never make it to the slaughterhouse, dying from stress-induced diseases or injuries, according to FARM.

The Meatout campaign is urging people to explore and adopt a vegan diet that will promote human and environmental health while increasing animal protection.

Visit out the Meatout website and find out if there’s an event in your area. There’s also free veg starter kits, recipes and other great info.